Penguins' power play remains a focus in run-up to NHL postseason tournament

Theory has it in the summer of 1606, William Shakespeare — the playwright, not the former Steelers draft pick — penned one of the most important pieces of literature in history, the tragedy “King Lear,” while in quarantine because of the bubonic plague.

Suffice it to say, he maximized his abundance of free time.

In the summer of 2020, Mike Sullivan also has been been trying to make good during his own lockdown.

While his work is far less profound than the Bard’s, Sullivan has been toiling over the past four months during the NHL’s coronavirus pause. He is trying to ensure the Penguins will be a better team entering the league’s postseason tournament than it was while it mostly stumbled down the final weeks of the regular season before it was halted in mid-March.

That is to say, nothing would come from nothing had the Penguins not regularly held video meetings with coaches and staff focusing on details big and small while quarantined in their homes the past four months.

The power play was an area that consumed a lot of attention during that time. It mostly bumbled through the regular season with a conversion rate of 19.9%, 16th best in the 31-team NHL.

Players viewed a lot of video of the man advantage the past four months.

“It gave us an opportunity in a different form to allow them to put their coaches’ hats on a little bit and problem solve rather than the coaches giving them suggestions or answers on how to improve and get better,” Sullivan said during a video chat with reporters. “They had an opportunity to analyze themselves and solve those problems and discuss amongst themselves based on their observations.

“One of the questions that we posed to them was, ‘What does the power play look like when we’re at our best and when we’re firing on all cylinders, and what might be absent in circumstances when we’re not at our best?’ “

On Wednesday, during the third day of their training camp in preparation for the NHL’s postseason tournament later this summer, the Penguins worked on the power play on the ice for the first time.

The top unit involved forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Jared McCann (presumably in place of net-front forward Patric Hornqvist, absent for undisclosed reasons). Defensemen Kris Letang and Justin Schultz alternated between the first and second units.

The second unit comprised forwards Patrick Marleau, Bryan Rust, Jason Zucker and defenseman John Marino.

Alternating Letang and Schultz is nothing new. By the time the regular season halted in March, Schultz was manning the point on the top unit.

“(Schultz and Letang are) guys that have good offensive instincts,” Sullivan said. “They’re both capable of being No. 1 quarterbacks on No. 1 units. And we practiced both of them up there because a lot of times circumstances in the game itself (are) going to dictate which guy we use.

“We use (Letang), for example, in a lot of situations. We try to manage his minutes as best we can. There might be circumstances where he’s tired or he’s coming off a penalty kill or coming off a shift. So we try to share that responsibility with those two guys because they’re both very capable, and they’re both really good at it. They’re similar in the sense that they have very good offensive instincts. They both like to shoot the puck.

“The differences, I think (Schultz) is a little bit more of a shoot-first mentality. (Letang) looks to dish the puck a little bit more often. But both of them are very capable. They have good instincts. They see it pretty well. Once again, we’re fortunate to have the depth that we have there.”

Injuries ate into that depth throughout the regular season, but perhaps no area felt it more directly than the power play. Crosby, Malkin and Guentzel missed considerable portions of the season because of various injuries.

Even when most of those components were in place, the unit sputtered far too often. Regardless, the Penguins remain confident they have the ingredients to be a dangerous power play.

“The one thing that the injuries forced us to do was use a lot of people, so it was hard to establish a level of consistency,” Sullivan said. “But having said that, we feel like we have capable people regardless of who we utilized on the power play. There were stretches where the power play was really good. There were other stretches where we went through a bit of a struggle. But we believe in the group that we have.”

Added Schultz: “It’s a fresh (start) now. Basically, it’s like a new year. Hopefully, we can get off to a quick start, and the power play stays hot.”